Friday, February 24, 2012

I found a picture of a quilt I made for my brother and his wife for a wedding present in 1991.

I can't decide if it's incredibly awful, or awfully incredible, LOL! I think that I ''tied'' this one, but I can't remember for sure. I do know that it's been used well though as I hear it's quite tattered and worn now......

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

well, FPP is all new to me. I tested parts of a DWR paper pieced block - enough to know I had my head wrapped around the concept. Or so I thought, LOL.
I pieced this the other day (found here on Etsy):

she turned out well in the end, but WOW was it a lot harder than I thought. Well, not really hard, just confusing! LOL. I am thinking I'll turn this matronly babushka into a pillow cover maybe? Although she needs a face - and I don't know if I'll attempt to embroider that on, or maybe just draw it on with Micron pens. I'm thinking the pens will win out, LOL.

Monday, February 20, 2012

I haven't a lot of time lately for quilting, but I made time this morning (getting up an hour earlier than I wanted to!) to make some of the curved 9-patches for the Urban 9-patch quiltalong (link on my side bar).

My centers are going to be 'scrappy' like this, but the background are going to be all the same as this block:

Friday, February 17, 2012

I went and visited my mom yesterday (went to JoAnn's to get her some more quilting thread), and I am in AWE at the quilting she is doing on her wrapped in red quilt. She is doing feathers! FMQ feathers on a Kenmore sewing machine as old as me!
excuse the poor quality camera work, it's from my cell phone (I don't have a fancy phone and it doesn't have a flash).

Isn't it awesome! I am SO inspired to try feathers on my next quilt that I quilt! Something I have not tried, but after seeing it in person...... I think I can, I think I can........

Thursday, February 16, 2012

I didn't buy (or receive) treats for Valentine's (the card-company/chocolate company's holiday!), but I decided to make some chocolate covered strawberries this morning. YUM. There just might have been two or three more than this before I took the pic. I have no clue where they went though. ::ahem::

and to keep it quilt-related, I have some more hexie flowers put together!

I've decided I'm not going to be attaching anymore of the hexies to the quilt top until *after* I get me some of the FMF reprint! I am on a fabric diet until it's release!!! I have so many quilts I want to make in FMF, and this is definitely one that needs more of it :) Then, I want to make a FMF double wedding ring, and a FMF triple irish chain, and and and and..........

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

no, I'm not a senior citizen - this is a post about my younger son's senior project. I'm not sure about in other parts of the country/world, but here kids have to choose a project to report on the end of their senior year. Their project needs to have at least 20 hours into it and they have to make a story board and do a presentation about it in front of school faculty (board members? principal? not sure on that). Anyhow, they need to have a 'mentor' for their project - and DS#2's mentor is moi :)
And I was *thrilled* with what he chose to make. It's something I personally have wanted to make for years, but just never got around to it.
This is what he's been making:

Can you see WHY I was thrilled? hehe :)
He's going to go with the painted case (not sure on the color yet, but possibly the dark green like pictured), and the bare wood panels/lid are curly maple (the wood is a little spalted and bug-eaten which gives it a really rustic look!) Here is a pic of the panels he has glued up for the lid:

Imagine how awesome this wood will be with a clear finish on it!
This wood has history - hubby and I harvested it ourselves. The trees were already cut down and we asked permission from the owners to cut slabs from the trees. Hubby used his chainsaw with an Alaskan saw mill attachment on it, and we cut wide slabs from it. It has been aging in our basement for a decade, and so when this project came up, I took some of the slabs into a local millworks and had them cut them into boards. The top is two book-matched boards cut from the same slab. The painted parts of the chest are getting made from pine lumber I had on hand. He got quite far on the project this weekend, and I think it will be finished next weekend :) His presentation is March 1st, so not much time left!

Monday, February 13, 2012

yes, with a metallic needle, #8 perle cotton WILL work in my machine. I had to take it slow and use longer stitches (and only straight stitches, no FMQing), but it DID work with some finesse and tension adjusting!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

I inherited my grandmother's footstool, and for a couple years I have had it covered up with a folded quilt because it was just SO worn and tired.

Got the old tacks out - and even was able to salvage more than half of them to reuse again!
I lucked out and also inherited this beautiful near-match wool needlepoint to recover it with! It still has the same look, just looks beautiful again!

I love the trim I found - it worked out perfectly for spacing of the tacks and the color is perfect too :) I couldn't be happier!

Monday, February 6, 2012

My blocks are all going to have a different variation of the middle 9-patch (red w/white in corners/middle and white w/red between) - but the background will be the same on all the blocks. These are 12'' finished blocks, so I think I am going to be doing a 7x7 block layout (49 blocks, wow!). I'm not fond of small quilts unless it's a baby quilt. Go big or go home! hehe :)